Platte County juniors Sisely Mitchell and Carmen Gentilia turned in top-10 performances to lead a third-place team finish in the Pink Division of the Sock It to Cancer Grain Valley Invitational on Saturday in Grain Valley. The Pirates received a first look at the course set to host next weekend’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships.
With Grain Valley unable to field a team of even five, Platte County will likely head into the race as favorites to win the conference title after finishing second last year in the Blue Division.
Mitchell will be the big reason way after placing fourth out of 48 runners in 20 minutes, 0.60 seconds, which is more than a minute off her career-best set a week earlier. She has shown flashes of low-19, high-18 potential but yet to consistently hit those marks in her second year running long distance in the fall after giving up volleyball and hockey.
Gentilia will be a big key to success at conference and in the upcoming postseason push. She set a PR while finishing eighth at Grain Valley in 20:18.00 to build on a season-best the previous week.
Finally fully returning to form after an injury-plagued sophomore season, Gentilia’s previous best race came in the Class 4 Missouri State Cross Country Championships as a freshman (20:21.90).
Platte County continues to field a lineup devoid of singles, and even not at full strength continues to show potential to win the program’s first team conference title since 2016 and push for a third straight team state berth. Pirates junior Alex Beeman placed 21st in 22:13.90 at Grain Valley as their No. 3 finisher, while junior Marissa Orellana (27th, 22:52.20) and sophomore Madison Palmer (29th, 23:02.20) rounded out the team score.
Orellana ran for just the third time this year, while sophomore Lily Kytasaari continues to try and balance club soccer and running and has not been available in recent weeks.
Platte County freshman Joanna Reil turned in the most impressive performance at Grain Valley, finishing 33rd in 23:25.10 and cutting nearly a full minute off her previous PR time. The Pirates also continued to benefit from the return of junior Julia Greco (35th, 23:40.20) for a second straight race. She ran on last year’s state qualifying team and stepped away briefly before forging a successful return to the lineup.
Gans Creek Classic
Platte County’s preview of the Missouri State Cross Country Championships course last Saturday in Columbia resulted in personal-best fast times across the board.
Mitchell became part of a clear breakaway pack of four in the Blue Division race and eventually finished second, less than a second behind Fulton junior Emery Mayfield. Already with the seventh-fastest time in program history, Mitchell became the second runner for the Pirates ever to go under 19 minutes in a race, finishing in 18:51.40. She previously set her career-best in the season-opening Tim Nixon Invitational at 19:05.60 and has lowered the best time from her sophomore year by 20 seconds.
Most importantly, this one came on the state course, which is what Platte County uses for school records. Rebekah Geddes owns the school record of 18:44.66 from her Class 4 state run as a junior in 2016 — she graduated early and did not run as a senior — but now only has the two-fastest times ever for the Pirates with Mitchell alone in third.
Mitchell’s standout performance drove Platte County to a second-place finish in the team standings with 214 points, the distant runnerup to St. Teresa Academy’s 91. There were 30 total teams and 245 individual runners.
Gentilia also turned in a medalist performance, placing 14th overall for Platte County in 20:40.40 (a season-best). The Pirates were again without Kytasaari, and Alex Beeman moved into the No. 3 spot (52nd, 22:27.70), setting a season-best by more than a minute.
Palmer also lowered her season-best by more than a minute and finished 79th in 23:07.70. Greco made her return to the varsity lineup with a season-debut time of 23:41.00, good for 111th. The Pirates also were able to run sophomore Annabel Beeman (131st, 23:58.30), Reil (139th, 24:19.00), freshman Kylie Kinzey (187th, 25:39.00) and freshman Lexi Meinke (204th, 26:36.60).
